80 Love Quotes for Wedding Invitations (Short & Classic)

The best love quotes for wedding invitations are short, accurate and placed with intention: one line under your names, a longer passage beside your story, a blessing at the close. Below are 80 of them, from fifteen original one-liners to Shakespeare, Austen, the Brontës, Burns and the Song of Solomon, each checked word for word against its source and attributed correctly.

Below: the 80 quotes in seven groups, a placement table, how to attribute and how long to go, quotes to avoid, and which quotes suit which design.

How to choose a love quote for your wedding invitation

Choose a quote you would both say out loud, that fits the tone of your day, and that reads in a single breath. It is the one line on the invitation that is not information, so it sets the voice for everything around it.

• Read it aloud to each other. If one of you winces, keep looking.
• Read it on a phone. If it wraps onto five lines under your names, move it to your story section.
• Check the context. Some famous lines are spoken by characters who never end up together. We flag those below.

Billet Doux is the design we had in mind for this list: a love letter in handmade parchment, sealed with apricot wax and a dried rosebud, unfolding onto golden-hour light. A billet-doux is, literally, a "sweet note", and a quote sits on it like a postscript.

Short love quotes for wedding invitations (written by our atelier)

These fifteen one-liners were written by the Veiloria atelier for this guide: use them freely, with no credit needed. They work best on the cover or as the first words guests read after the opening.

1. "Two names, one date, and everyone we love."
2. "Our love story has a new chapter, and you are in it."
3. "Of all the days ahead of us, this is the first."
4. "Sealed with love, opened by you."
5. "Come for the vows, stay for the dancing."
6. "We said yes. Now we would love yours."
7. "Two hearts, one table, and a seat kept for you."
8. "The rest of our lives begins at four o'clock." (Change the hour to yours.)
9. "Every love story deserves a first page." (The line our maison is built on.)
10. "Bring your heart and your dancing shoes."
11. "Love brought us here. We would love you to be there."
12. "Hand in hand, and you beside us."
13. "Forever starts on a Saturday in June." (Change the day and month.)
14. "A promise, a party, and you."
15. "Write this one in ink."

Classic love quotes from literature

Literature gives you lines guests already half-know, which is why they land. All are in the public domain; where a character speaks, we say who.

16. "Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments. Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds." (William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116)
17. "My bounty is as boundless as the sea, / My love as deep; the more I give to thee, / The more I have, for both are infinite." (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet: Juliet)
18. "I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that strange?" (Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing: Benedick)
19. "No sooner met but they looked; no sooner looked but they loved." (Shakespeare, As You Like It: Rosalind)
20. "Journeys end in lovers meeting." (Shakespeare, Twelfth Night: Feste's song)
21. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." (Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese, 43)
22. "I love thee to the level of everyday's / Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight." (Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnet 43)
23. "You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice: Mr Darcy, whose first proposal is refused)
24. "There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison." (Jane Austen, Persuasion)
25. "If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more." (Jane Austen, Emma: Mr Knightley)
26. "Reader, I married him." (Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre)
27. "I am my husband's life as fully as he is mine." (Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre)
28. "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." (Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights: Catherine, about Heathcliff, whom she does not marry)
29. "Human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love." (Plato, Symposium, Aristophanes' speech, translated by Benjamin Jowett)
30. "I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days—three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain." (John Keats, letter to Fanny Brawne, July 1819)
31. "What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined for life—to strengthen each other in all labour, to rest on each other in all sorrow…" (George Eliot, Adam Bede)
32. "You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore." (Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, "On Marriage", 1923)
33. "Let there be spaces in your togetherness, / And let the winds of the heavens dance between you." (Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet)
34. "The supreme happiness of life consists in the conviction that one is loved." (Victor Hugo, Les Misérables, translated by Isabel F. Hapgood)

Poems for wedding invitations: short verses and excerpts

A poem on an invitation is almost always an excerpt: two to four lines, with a slash where the line breaks. Older spellings stay where they charm (Burns) and are modernised where they would only confuse (Donne).

35. "Come live with me and be my love, / And we will all the pleasures prove." (Christopher Marlowe, "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love")
36. "And I will luve thee still, my dear, / Till a' the seas gang dry." (Robert Burns, "A Red, Red Rose")
37. "O my Luve's like a red, red rose / That's newly sprung in June." (Robert Burns, "A Red, Red Rose")
38. "If ever any beauty I did see, / Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee." (John Donne, "The Good-Morrow", spelling modernised)
39. "For love, all love of other sights controls, / And makes one little room an everywhere." (John Donne, "The Good-Morrow")
40. "If ever two were one, then surely we." (Anne Bradstreet, "To My Dear and Loving Husband")
41. "Nothing in the world is single, / All things by a law divine / In one another's being mingle— / Why not I with thine?" (Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Love's Philosophy")
42. "She walks in beauty, like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies." (Lord Byron, "She Walks in Beauty")
43. "For one is both and both are one in love." (Christina Rossetti, Monna Innominata, Sonnet 4)
44. "Doubt thou the stars are fire, / Doubt that the sun doth move, / Doubt truth to be a liar, / But never doubt I love." (Shakespeare, Hamlet: Hamlet's letter to Ophelia)
45. "Tread softly because you tread on my dreams." (W. B. Yeats, "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven", 1899)

Bible verses and blessings for wedding invitations

For a religious invitation, the King James Version (KJV) is the classic choice: public domain, with a cadence that suits a formal card. Where the KJV says "charity", we give the American Standard Version (ASV, 1901), also public domain, which says "love". For the wording around a verse, see religious wedding invitation wording.

46. "Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death." (Song of Solomon 8:6, KJV)
47. "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it." (Song of Solomon 8:7, KJV)
48. "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine." (Song of Solomon 6:3, KJV; in Hebrew, Ani l'dodi v'dodi li)
49. "I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go." (Song of Solomon 3:4, KJV)
50. "Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." (Ruth 1:16, KJV)
51. "Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." (1 Corinthians 13:4, ASV; the KJV reads "Charity suffereth long, and is kind")
52. "Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." (1 Corinthians 13:7, KJV)
53. "Love never faileth." (1 Corinthians 13:8, ASV)
54. "But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13, ASV)
55. "Two are better than one." (Ecclesiastes 4:9, KJV)
56. "A threefold cord is not quickly broken." (Ecclesiastes 4:12, KJV)
57. "And they shall be one flesh." (Genesis 2:24, KJV)
58. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." (Mark 10:9, KJV)
59. "And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness." (Colossians 3:14, KJV)
60. "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24, KJV)
61. "The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride." (Jeremiah 33:11, JPS 1917; the kol sasson of Jewish weddings)
62. "And of His signs is this: He created for you helpmeets from yourselves that ye might find rest in them, and He ordained between you love and mercy." (Qur'an 30:21, translated by Marmaduke Pickthall)
63. "And all things We have created by pairs." (Qur'an 51:49, translated by Marmaduke Pickthall)

Love quotes for the Save the Date

A Save the Date quote should be light and forward-looking: spring, journeys, a countdown. For complete messages, see our Save the Date wording guide.

64. "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past." (Song of Solomon 2:10–11, KJV; made for a spring wedding)
65. "And I will come again, my Luve, / Tho' it were ten thousand mile." (Robert Burns, "A Red, Red Rose"; for a destination wedding)
66. "Save the date. We are saving you a seat." (our atelier)
67. "First the date. The love letter follows." (our atelier)
68. "Hold the date. We will hold the dance floor." (our atelier)

Lines from earlier groups that also suit a Save the Date: Marlowe's "Come live with me and be my love" (35) and Feste's "Journeys end in lovers meeting" (20).

Quotes for the closing line of the invitation

The closing line is the last thing guests read before they reply, so it should feel like a blessing or a promise, never a summary.

69. "So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." (Shakespeare, Sonnet 18)
70. "Then while we live, in love let's so persevere / That when we live no more, we may live ever." (Anne Bradstreet, "To My Dear and Loving Husband")
71. "Sing and dance together and be joyous." (Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet; perfect above the reception details)
72. "With all our love, and a place for you at our table." (our atelier)
73. "Joyfully yours, and soon each other's." (our atelier)

Quotes for second marriages and vow renewals

For a second marriage or a vow renewal, choose lines about time, return and a love that has been tested, not first-love lines that read oddly with children from earlier marriages at the table.

74. "Grow old along with me! / The best is yet to be." (Robert Browning, "Rabbi Ben Ezra")
75. "I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago." (Jane Austen, Persuasion: Captain Wentworth's letter)
76. "But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, / All losses are restor'd and sorrows end." (Shakespeare, Sonnet 30)
77. "Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, / But bears it out even to the edge of doom." (Shakespeare, Sonnet 116)
78. "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." (Ecclesiastes 3:1, KJV)
79. "For, you see, each day I love you more: today more than yesterday, and much less than tomorrow." (Rosemonde Gérard, "L'Éternelle Chanson", 1889, our translation)
80. "Some love stories are worth telling twice." (our atelier)

The best quotes at a glance: quote, source and placement

Twelve of the strongest lines, and exactly where each works.

Where a quote goes on a wedding invitation

A quote can sit in one of three places: on the cover with your names, beside your story, or at the close before the reply. Choose one main place; two short quotes of different kinds is the most we would ever set.

On paper, the quote goes at the very top, above the hosts' line. On a digital invitation, the opening plays first and the quote can be the first line guests read, with your love story a scroll below. For everything else, see what to include in a wedding invitation and our wedding invitation wording guide.

How long should a quote on a wedding invitation be?

Under your names, one sentence or two short lines, roughly 25 words; in a story section, up to four lines. Anything longer belongs in the ceremony booklet, the order of service or a reading.

• Count lines on a phone, not words on paper. In a script face, 25 words can fill five lines.
• Cut with an ellipsis (…), never by rewording. Changing "thee" to "you" is no longer quoting.
• Keep poetry's line breaks with a slash (" / "), or as real breaks when you have room.

How to attribute a quote on a wedding invitation

Credit the author and, when it helps, the work, in smaller type under the quote: "William Shakespeare" or "Song of Solomon 8:6".

Set the credit on its own line after a dash ("— Robert Burns"), and credit the author, not the character: "Jane Austen", not "Mr Darcy".

Quotes to avoid: misattributions and lines still under copyright

Many of the most-shared "wedding quotes" online are misattributed, altered or still under copyright. None is in our bank:

• "The Apache Wedding Blessing" is not an Apache text: it comes from the 1950 Hollywood film Broken Arrow (Offbeat Wed).
• "To love another person is to see the face of God" is a lyric from the musical Les Misérables, not a line from Victor Hugo's novel.
• "Love is patient, love is kind" is the wording of modern, copyrighted translations such as the NIV and ESV. The public-domain KJV says "Charity suffereth long"; the ASV, "Love suffereth long" (51).
• Most "Rumi" wedding quotes are modern English versions under copyright, and some cannot be traced to Rumi at all.
• Pablo Neruda, E. E. Cummings ("i carry your heart") and modern song lyrics are under copyright.
• Lines "attributed to" a celebrity with no source are best left out.

If you love a modern poem, ask the publisher, or borrow its feeling and write your own line.

Matching the quote to your invitation design

The quote and the design should speak in the same voice: a love letter wants letters, a garden wants roses, black tie wants Shakespeare. How we pair quotes with our seven romance designs:

RoseraieAn embossed envelope that opens into a sacred rose gardenSee Roseraie

DentelleThe back of a lace gown, its pearl buttons coming undoneSee Dentelle

PortailGarden gates dressed in white roses, opening onto a candlelit aisleSee Portail

SoiréeA black pochette that opens in a spiral of gold foilSee Soirée

CielA wedding above the clouds, where you rise through the sky to find the coupleSee Ciel

RubanA silk bow to untie: something blueSee Ruban

Billet DouxA love letter folded for your guests, opened at golden hourSee Billet Doux

For more, see romantic wedding invitations and fairytale wedding invitations. Writing in two languages? Pick one quote per language rather than translating one (Bécquer for Spanish guests, Hugo for French ones); our bilingual wedding invitation wording guide shows how to set both.

How we set a quote in a Veiloria invitation

At Veiloria, a designer places your quote by hand, in the design's own type, and you approve it in a private proof before anyone sees it. Send the quote with your details; we check the wording and the credit and suggest where it reads best: on the cover, in your story or at the close. Each guest reads the invitation in their own language, so a grandmother in Seville can read Bécquer while a cousin in London reads Burns. Browse all the designs, or open Billet Doux:

Sources

Every quote was checked on 28 October 2026 against public-domain texts:

• Project Gutenberg: Shakespeare's Sonnets, Complete Works of Shakespeare, Sonnets from the Portuguese, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Emma, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Adam Bede, Symposium, The Prophet, Les Misérables, Keats's letters to Fanny Brawne, Bulchevy's Book of English Verse, The Golden Treasury, Poems of John Donne, The Wind Among the Reeds, Browning's Shorter Poems.
• Wikisource: Christina Rossetti, Monna Innominata; Anne Bradstreet in Anne Bradstreet and her time.
• Bible: King James Version and American Standard Version via the getBible API; Jeremiah 33:11 and Song of Songs 6:3 (JPS 1917 and Hebrew) on Sefaria.
• Qur'an 30:21 and 51:49, Arabic text and Pickthall's translation, via the Al Quran Cloud API.
• The origin of the "Apache Wedding Blessing": Offbeat Wed.

Frequently asked questions